Scout bridges navigation gap between car and phone

The destination shown on this navigation system was delivered through smartphone integration.

(Credit:
Wayne Cunningham/CNET)

LOS ANGELES - If you ever read an address off your phone and typed it into your
car's navigation system, you experienced one of the biggest disconnects between smartphones and cars. At the LA Auto Show, Telenav demonstrated how its Scout navigation app solves this problem.

Last September, Ford and Telenav announced that Scout was compatible with Ford's Sync AppLink app integration feature. Sync AppLink lets drivers control compatible apps through their car's interface. Scout was the first navigation app to work with AppLink, and joined a growing number of compatible apps.

Telenav's Mark Burfeind demonstrated the new Scout integration for CNET in a Mustang equipped with Ford's previous generation navigation system and the latest version of Sync AppLink. Pairing an
Android phone with the Scout app to the car through Bluetooth, Burfeind used the car's voice command to launch Scout, which appeared as one of the choices on the AppLink screen.

AppLink was able to access destinations saved in the phone's Favorites and Recents list, and search for nearby points of interests based on categories. Burfeind requested Favorites through voice command, and the Mustang's infotainment system began displaying and reading out each destination, one at a time. Choosing one, the car loaded it into its navigation system and computed the route.

As another example of the system's capabilities, Burfeind chose the category Coffee, causing Scout to do an online search for nearby coffee shops. Again, the car read each result out one at a time, then showed the first three results on a screen. He was able to choose one and have the car compute the route. It seems tedious to have the car read out the results so slowly, but Telenav engineered the AppLink interface in this manner to avoid distracting drivers.

Beyond the phone and car integration, Telenav maintains the Scout.me Web site, which lets users search for destinations that will then show up in the Scout apps on their phones.

Although Scout worked fine in the navigation-equipped Mustang, it really shines when running with one of Ford's cars lacking navigation, but equipped with AppLink. In that environment, a user could control the Scout app through the car's voice command, searching for destinations or choosing one from the Favorites or Recents lists. Scout would use the car's own GPS chip and antenna to determine its location, then compute the route on the phone. Route guidance would appear as turn-by-turn directions on a screen in the car.

Scout AppLink integration lets drivers request destinations by Recents, Favorites, and category searches.

(Credit:
Wayne Cunningham/CNET)

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Obama Lunches With Romney as 'Cliff' Talks Falter

President Obama and Mitt Romney met face to face today for the first time since the election, breaking bread at the White House as talks over the looming "fiscal cliff" appeared to be faltering on Capitol Hill.

"I bet it was and is quite tasty," Obama spokesman Jay Carney said of the lunch as it was underway, "because [the chefs] know how to prepare very fine meals."

The menu included white turkey chili and Southwestern grilled chicken salad, the White House said in a written statement following the meal. The discussion was said to center on "America's leadership in the world and the importance of maintaining that leadership position in the future."

The former rivals concluded their 70-minute encounter with a visit to the Oval Office, the symbolic center of American power to which Romney has long tried to accede, shaking hands before the iconic "Resolute" presidential desk.

"Governor Romney congratulated the President for the success of his campaign and wished him well over the coming four years," the White House said. "They pledged to stay in touch, particularly if opportunities to work together on shared interests arise in the future."

The lunch took place in an elegant private dining room in the West Wing overlooking the manicured gardens of the White House South Lawn. Romney was seen coming and going from a side entrance in a black SUV. The former GOP nominee arrived without fanfare or entourage, opening his own car door both times.

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President Obama said during a news conference earlier this month that he was interested in speaking with Romney about his ideas on jobs and economic growth, noting that his rival had "presented some ideas during the course of the campaign that I actually agree with."

Administration officials said there was no formal agenda for today's lunch or a "specific ask" or assignment for the governor.

Romney, who has kept a relatively low profile since losing the election on Nov. 6, has not publicly addressed Obama's post-election overtures or the prospect of working together. Both men have little personal history and had a chilly relationship during the campaign.

Senior Romney campaign strategist Eric Fehrnstrom called Obama's lunch invitation "gracious" and said that Romney was "glad to accept." The governor also met earlier Thursday in Washington with former running mate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

The Obama-Romney detente came as talks between the White House and congressional Republicans to prevent the economy from going over the "fiscal cliff" of mandatory spending cuts and tax increases set for Jan. 1 appeared to hit a snag.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the lead White House negotiator in the talks, and White House legislative chief Rob Nabors held a flurry of meetings today with congressional leaders of both parties in the House and Senate.

But following sessions, top Republicans poured cold water on what had been budding optimism of progress toward a deal.

"No substantive progress has been made over the last two weeks," said House Speaker John Boehner at a press conference.

"We know what the menu is. What we don't know is what the White House is willing to do to get serious about solving our debt crisis," he said, accusing the administration of failing to detail plans for significant spending cuts to correspond with desired tax revenue increases.

Obama and Boehner spoke by phone Wednesday night, sources told ABC News, their second conversation in four days. Boehner described it as "direct and straightforward," but suggested "disappointment" with Obama's reticence to waver on hiking tax rates on the wealthy.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in advance of his meeting with Geithner, said everything the White House has put down on the table so far has been "counterproductive," and he hopes that the Treasury Secretary brings "a specific plan from the president" with him today.

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Today on New Scientist: 28 November 2012

Out-of-proportion black hole is a rare cosmic fossil

A fairly small galaxy is host to a strangely enormous black hole, which could be a remnant of a quasar from the dawn of time

Flowing lithium atoms form accidental transistor

A transistor that controls the flow of atoms, rather than electrons, could be used as a model to probe the mysterious electrical property of superconductivity

Europe in 2050: a survivor's guide to climate change

A new report gives a clear picture of how global warming is affecting Europe - so how must countries adapt to survive?

Arctic permafrost is melting faster than predicted

A UN report and NASA research highlight greenhouse gases from melting permafrost, which they say could warm Earth's climate faster than we thought

Cassini spots superstorm at Saturn's north pole

The end of Saturn's 15-year winter reveals a huge hurricane-like vortex at the centre of the mysterious hexagon that tops the ringed planet

Infinity in the real world: Does space go on forever?

Watch an animation that tries to pin down the size of the universe, the largest thing that exists

Endangered primates caught in Congolese conflict

As the UN warns of a growing humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the advance of the M23 rebels also puts the region's gorillas and chimps at risk

Hive minds: Honeybee intelligence creates a buzz

Bees do remarkable things with a brain the size of a pinhead, raising some intriguing questions about the nature of intelligence for David Robson

Humans head for moon's orbit - and beyond

A NASA mission might focus on the dark side, while a private mission may attempt something even more novel

Europe has right stuff to take NASA back to moon

ESA's redesigned cargo drone will give NASA's Orion spacecraft air, power and manoeuvrability on two new trips to the moon

DNA imaged with electron microscope for the first time

The famous twists of DNA's double helix have been seen with the aid of an electron microscope and a silicon bed of nails

Holiday gifts: Books to give by

CultureLab picks the best books to delight the scientifically curious this holiday season

How do you solve a problem like North Korea?

Forging scientific links may be one of the best ways to help bring rogue states back into the international fold

What truly exists? Structure as a route to the real

Some say we should accept that entities such as atomic particles really do exist. Others bitterly disagree. There is a way out, says Eric Scerri

Gas explosion in Springfield points to ageing pipes

Gas company officials attributed natural gas explosion on 23 November to human error, but the pipeline's corrosion made it susceptible to puncture

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Black Hole Blast Biggest Ever Recorded

Astronomers have witnessed a record-breaking blast of gas and dust flowing out of a monster black hole more than 11.5 billion light-years away.

The supermassive gravity well, with a mass of one to three billion suns, lurks at the core of a quasar—a class of extremely bright and energetic galaxies—dubbed SDSS J1106 1939. (See "Black Hole Blasts Superheated Early Universe.")

"We discovered the most energetic quasar outflow ever seen, at least five times more powerful than any that have been observed to date," said Nahum Arav, an astronomer at Virginia Tech and co-author of the study to be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Using the powerful telescopes of the European Southern Observatory in Chile, Arav and his team were able to clock the speed and other properties of the outflow.

Belching out material as much as 400 times the weight of our sun every year, the blast is located nearly a thousand light-years from the quasar and has a velocity of roughly 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) per hour.

"We were hoping to see something like this, but the sheer power of this outflow still took us by surprise," said Arav.

The central black hole in this quasar is true giant dynamo. It's estimated to be upward of a thousand times more massive than the one in the Milky Way, producing energy at rates about a hundred times higher than the total power output of our galaxy. (See black hole pictures.)

Clues to Galaxy Evolution

Supermassive black holes are large enough to swallow our entire solar system and are notorious for ripping apart and swallowing stars. But they also power distant quasars and spew out material at high speeds.

(See "Monster Black Holes Gobble Binary Stars to Grow?")

The outflows have been suspected to play a key role in the evolution of galaxies, explained Arav, but questions have persisted for years in the astronomical community as to whether they were powerful enough.

This newly discovered super outflow could solve major cosmic mysteries, including how the mass of a galaxy is linked to its central black hole mass and why there is a relative scarcity of large galaxies across the universe.

"I believe this is the smoking gun for several theoretical ideas that use the mechanical energy output of quasars to solve several important problems in the formation of galaxies and cluster of galaxies," said Arav.

While Kirk Korista, an astronomer not connected to the study, believes these claims may be a bit premature, the research is expected to shed new light on the most powerful and least understood portions of typical quasar outflows.

"The superb spectroscopic data of this quasar have allowed for a breakthrough in quantifying the energetics of what is probably a typical quasar outflow," said Korista, an astronomy professor at Western Michigan University.

"This definitely is an important step in piecing together the story of galaxy evolution, and in elucidating the role of quasars in that story."

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3D printer on moon or Mars could make tools from local rocks

No blue cheese: Manufacturing with moon rocks is feasible, researchers have shown.

(Credit:
Tim Hornyak/CNET)

NASA is already experimenting with printing components for rockets to Mars, but the fun doesn't have to stop at liftoff.

Researchers at Washington State University and NASA have published a paper suggesting that regolith on the moon or Mars could be used to print useful objects like tools or replacement parts.

The study in Rapid Prototyping Journal describes an additive manufacturing process called "laser engineered net shaping" (LENS).

The laser-assisted technique can be used to create metal parts from computer-aided design (CAD) files. The study marks its first use with simulated lunar material.

Along with their collaborators, WSU's Amit Bandyopadhyay and Susmita Bose, a husband and wife research team in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, experimented with 10 pounds of simulated lunar regolith provided by NASA. They managed to create structures from the regolith that didn't exhibit any visible cracks, according to the study.

"It doesn't look fantastic, but you can make something out of it," Bandyopadhyay said in a release.

Manufacturing parts or tools locally for construction or repairs could dramatically reduce the cost of missions to Mars or the moon, while additives from Earth could be used to strengthen regolith products.

The team plans to show how the material can be used to perform remote repairs. It will also try to create parts using simulated Martian soil.

"It is an exciting science fiction story, but maybe we'll hear about it in the next few years," Bandyopadhyay said in the release.

"As long as you can have additive manufacturing set up, you may be able to scoop up and print whatever you want. It's not that far-fetched," he added.

Good thing the moon isn't really made of cheese. Would Gruyere make a good wrench?

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Dos, Don'ts of Powerball Office Pools

Powerball fever is sweeping the nation.

The Powerball jackpot is at a record high of $550 million. And with the winnings so high, everyone is rushing to buy a ticket in the hope that they'll be the lucky winner.

A popular means of lotto ticket purchasing is an office pool -- in which a group of colleagues pools their money, buys a slate of tickets together and promises to share the winnings equally. It can be a fun bonding experience with your co-workers, but there are do's and don'ts to abide by, on the off-chance that your ticket(s) have the winning numbers.

DO

Write a Contract

It may seem too serious for what's supposed to be fun and harmless, but this amount of money can make people a little crazy, so it's worth taking precautions. You don't need to draft a formal, notorized document -- a simple piece of paper with the terms of your pool and everyone's signature suffices. Make sure to store a copy of the contract in a safe place.

Make Sure Everyone Contributes an Equal Amount

Sure, if you contribute $2 and your colleague contributes $4, that's not a big difference. But if you win, that colleague will have a claim to 50 percent more of the pool than you, and that will undoubtedly create some office tension.

Photocopy the Tickets for All Participants

Yes, it's unlikely that someone would lie about the tickets outcome, say they lost when they won, claim the money, and then come into the office and continue acting like nothing had happened. But it's unlikely that you're going to win the lottery in the first place, so normal reasoning does not apply here.

Make a List of People Who Opted Out This Time

DON'T

Rely on a Verbal Contract

Words won't hold up in a court of law if someone claims the winning ticket first and runs off with all of the winnings for themselves.

Let Anyone Contribute Money on Behalf of Someone Else

It's a nice idea to include all of your colleagues, even the ones who are out of the office the day you buy the tickets, or short of cash for the pool. But if you do win, those individuals who did not actually put up any of their own money for the tickets will almost certainly not be seen as having a legitimate claim to the winnings.

Trust the Tickets to the Interns

They're working for little to no money, so their loyalty is probably low.

Run Multiple Pools at Once

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Gas explosion in Springfield points to ageing pipes

Human error and corroded pipes were a catastrophic combination on 23 November when a natural gas explosion in Springfield, Massachusetts, injured 21 people and damaged more than 40 buildings.

Gas company officials attributed the incident to an employee puncturing a high-pressure pipeline with a metal probe while looking for a leak. However, the steel pipeline was highly corroded, making it susceptible to damage, according to Mark McDonald, president of the New England Gas Workers Association. "You would have to be Superman to go through steel pipe in good condition," he says.

Ageing natural gas pipelines in the US are increasingly coming under scrutiny. A recent study found 3356 leaks from pipelines under Boston alone. Twenty-five thousand leaks have been reported throughout Massachusetts, some of which have been leaking continuously for more than 20 years, McDonald says. "Enough is enough," he says. "We have to fix the leaks and maintain the gas lines."

The leaks raise safety concerns, and have implications for global warming. Methane is thought to be more than 20 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 100 year period.

Incidents involving natural gas pipelines in the US cause an average of $133 million in property damage each year according to data collected by the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Even accounting for inflation, annual damages are several times higher today than they were 20 years ago.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation India

A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.

Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.

"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.

"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")

According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.

Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.

"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."

(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")

Published November 27, 2012

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Yelp CEO: Yep, Google can be pretty evil

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman speaks during a Business Insider conference in New York.

(Credit:
Dan Farber/CNET)

NEW YORK--Sure, Google can be pretty evil, Yelp Chief Executive Jeremy Stoppelman said.

Stoppelman, speaking at a Business Insider conference, responded to a question from Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider deputy editor, about whether Google is evil. While he didn't straight out call the larger company the devil, he did say that Google has some evil business practices, such as ranking its reviews higher than those from competitors like Yelp.

Stoppelman said that any disruptive businesses, like Uber and Airbnb, are guaranteed backlash, and government and business entities shouldn't necessarily be allowed to limit those businesses. However, Google's practices are likely "worth taking a look at," he said.

"If you happen to be the gateway for the vast majority of users on the Internet and you restrict information and put your house property ahead of everyone else, you potentially harm consumers," Stoppelman said. "We can all agree that's probably not a good thing."

We've reached out to Google and will update when we hear back.

Yelp's problems with Google have been well documented. The company spurned a takeover offer from the search giant several years ago, and it has criticized Google for using Yelp reviews without providing credit. In addition, Stoppelman testified in Congress a year ago that Google didn't play fair with its search results. The Federal Trade Commission has been investigating those complaints, trying to determine if Google ranks search results from its own products higher than those of its competitors.

Meanwhile, Stoppelman said that doing anything local doesn't happen quickly. Yelp was founded about eight years ago, but only went public earlier this year. By comparison, other local advertising and offer companies like Groupon turned to the public market much more quickly after their founding. Groupon in particular has faced concerns about its growth and strategy in recent months.

"Doing anything in local requires depth," Stoppelman said. "And depth takes time. One of the key insights we had early on was we focused on a city-by-city approach."

He noted that Yelp quickly realized that it wouldn't be easy to generate revenue through advertising. That's why it quickly moved to a subscription-based advertising product from its earlier plans for focusing on performance-based ads.

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman at a Business Insider conference

(Credit:
Dan Farber/CNET)

Stoppelman noted that most businesses were basic Internet users and were uncomfortable with performance-based ads. Instead, they preferred paying fixed rates for a certain period of time.

"They were used to something fixed fee, a set-it-and-forget-it model," he said.

Yelp, which went public in March, has grown quickly, but it also has long faced doubts about its ability to survive as a standalone firm and maintain its brisk growth. Competition is also a constant concern, with the company rivaling larger companies like Google and startups like Foursquare. The latter company earlier this month launched a rating system to compete with Yelp.

While it seems that Foursquare is treading on Yelp territory, the competition goes both ways. Yelp revamped its site in August to highlight social connections. The new feature included a news feed of sorts that shows friends' activity on the site, including comments, check-ins, photos, and tips. Yelp also recently rolled out in-app restaurant menus for its mobile users.

Stoppelman today noted that Yelp is "in the midst of a really big transformation" where mobile becomes a bigger part of the business.

"In 2008, Yelp was a Web site with a little app. Now Yelp is an app with a really big Web site," he said, adding that five years from now, mobile likely will be even more important.

"We are a mobile first company," Stoppelman said.

He added that it's hard to say what tangential businesses Yelp will get into but noted "it's fair to say we're really focused."

"In a lot of other companies, we're seeing a lot of pivots, a lot of transitions and concern about the core business. We're lucky not to be in that circumstance right now
Our core business is strong, and people are writing more reviews than ever. We're still very much focused on what we've been doing. We are still managing that transition, but we're lucky enough to not have to change an engine mid-flight," Stoppelman said.

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Egypt Erupts Over Morsi's 'First Step for Tyranny'

Nov 27, 2012 1:33pm

Khalil Hamra/AP Photo

CAIRO – Waves of protesters poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square today to protest the far-reaching constitutional declaration made by President Mohammed Morsi last week that has essentially granted him unchecked power.

Click here for images of the demonstrations in Tahrir Square.

The new declaration frees Morsi from judicial oversight and with no parliament currently in place, many said longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak had simply been substituted with another.

“This is the first step for tyranny, he’s trying to put all the power in his hands and this is against the constitution and the law,” said Hassan Gamal, a professor of orthopaedic surgery. “No exceptions for anybody. Mubarak was tyrant because of the exceptions. We’re not going to tolerate any exceptions anymore.”

Liberal groups had called for the mass protest against Morsi, many of which have long complained of Islamists’ strength in post-Mubarak Egypt, led by Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Protesters today said they were afraid of the constitution being written by an Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly, which will be put to a referendum once finished.

“The Muslim Brotherhood, they say something and then do the opposite,” said English teacher Nadine Mustafa. “We are in the 21st century, we want democracy, we don’t want a pharaoh ruining the country. This is ridiculous.”

Morsi’s office published the seven-article declaration on Thursday, the second of which states that Morsi’s laws and decrees “are final and binding and cannot be appealed by any way or to any entity” until the constitution is approved and a parliament elected.

Violence immediately broke out with clashes between Morsi opponents, supporters and police leading to more than 500 injuries and at least three deaths. To prevent more violence, the Muslim Brotherhood on Monday night cancelled their own rallies planned for today, though supporters did turn out in Alexandria.

“He’s a president that was elected to office with no constitution, no parliament and no defined powers in the state. It’s an exceptional circumstance,” argued Muslim Brotherhood senior adviser Jihad Haddad, who accused Mubarak-appointed judges of blocking Morsi’s attempts to reform the country’s institutions.

Morsi’s office insisted that the powers are only temporary. Haddad said the declaration will only be valid until a draft of the constitution is submitted.

“[Morsi] tried to do this through the only available avenue and choice,” Haddad said. “It does terrify [Morsi opponents] because the only thing they can rely on is trust and that trust was given to us during the presidential elections.”

SHOWS: World News

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